Various methods of rewards systems are known in the art. A reward may be a given based on the amount of consumable supply bought. U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2006/0221387 the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discusses managing printers at a variety of sites by setting targets for predetermined performance indicators. A contract manager is used to monitor the usage and optimize the performance of the printers. The printing devices are rewarded and penalized based on their usage and hitting or missing their targets. However, the system does not take into account other factors such as service time to determine if the target is met.
Alternatively, a reward may be given based on the rate of consumption of a supply. In one example, U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2004/0138945, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, a rate of supply item consumption is determined for a customer and a reward is given as a result of the usage. However, the prior art merely provides a consumer with a reward or service rate based on the rate of consumption and does not take into account other factors such as previous consumption and repair time.
Therefore, the disclosure contained herein describes methods of resolving one or more of the problems discussed above.